As the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 is upon us, I've thought much of what transpired on and since that fateful day. I think about people that have an ache in their soul because of empty place at their table - silence where there was once life. What a tragic, senseless loss. I mourn the loss of all human life since that day.

Too many Americans have died. Too many Afghans have died. Too many Iraqi. Too many Taliban. Yes, too many Al Qaeda.

Too many women...too many children.

The innocence of thousands of hopeful hearts has been crushed.

God is not a respecter of body bags. He grieves all the loss. He grieves for this violent world that for centuries has neglected his simple teaching that the Kingdom of God is available to us all now. A Kingdom of love and peace - not violence. A Kingdom in which we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Was the escalation of violence the only answer? Has our response as a country really made the world a better place?

Or, did we just lack imagination?

It is important that we all take time to reflect on 9/11 in just a couple of days. Let's remember, not so we can exact more revenge, but let's remember, ponder, reflect, and imagine a peace that can salve the wounds of all the families of the world. Families that have lost those they love because too many still feel peace can be bought with violence.

Read about an event we will be attending. Maybe you'll want to join us.

Dave

I was in Baghdad in March 2003, where I lived as a Christian and as a peacemaker during the “shock-and-awe” bombing. I spent time with families, volunteered in hospitals, and learned to sing “Amazing Grace”… in Arabic. There is one image of the time in Baghdad that will never leave me. As the bombs fell from the sky and smoke filled the air, one of the doctors in the hospital held a little girl whose body was riddledwith missile fragments. He threw his hands in the air and said, “This violence is for a world that has lost its imagination.” Then he looked square into my eyes, with tears pouring from his, and said, “Has your country lost its imagination?”

That doctor’s words have stayed with me.

In a country that is going bankrupt as it continues to spend 250,000 a minute on war… it is clear that it is time to re-imagine things. That doctor’s words have inspired a little something.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of September 11, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, and I are teaming up. And we have rallied a bunch of other artists and storytellers to create a 90-minute variety show and multimedia presentation raising questions of violence and militarism… and sharing stories of reconciliation and grace.

A victim of 911 will share about why she has insisted that more violence will not cure the epidemic of hatred in the world.

A veteran from Iraq will speak about the collision he felt as a Christian trying to follow the nonviolent-enemy-love of Jesus on the cross… while carrying a gun.

A welder will tie an AK-47 in a knot and while a muralist paints something beautiful on stage.

We’re going to do a SKYPE call with Afghan youth working for peace, and hear their dreams for a world free of war and bombs and other ugly things.

I don’t want to give the whole thing away, but I will say we’ve got the world’s best juggler Josh Horton doing an original anti-violence routine… and we’ve got some of the finest musicians rocking out some old freedom songs.

Ben and I are sort of like the ringmasters of the circus. He’ll do this spectacular demonstration with Oreos, with each one representing 10 billion dollars of federal spending so we can see how the money stacks up with all these budget talks. I’ll share about Jesus, and that grace that dulls even the sharpest sword.

But even if you can’t make it to Philly on September 10 for our little party… find some way to do something that doesn’t compute with the patterns of violence. It’s time to re-imagine the world.

Find a way to interrupt injustice and to build the kind of world we are proud to pass on to our kids — a world with fewer bombs and more ice cream.

I hope to go back to Iraq in a year or two, find that doctor again — and tell him: “We have not lost our imagination.”

—–Shane Claiborne is a prominent author, speaker, activist, and founding member of the Simple Way. He is one of the compilers of Common Prayer, a new resource to unite people in prayer and action. Shane is also helping develop a network called Friends Without Borders which creates opportunities for folks to come together and work together for justice from around the world.